BASS, in music, that part of a concert which is most heard, which consists of the gravest and deepest sounds, and which is played on the largest pipes or strings of a common instrument, as of an organ, lute, &c. or an instrument larger than or dinary, for that purpose, as bass-viols, bassoons, bass-hautboys, &c. The bass is the principal part of a musical compo sition, and the foundation of harmony ; for which reason it is a maxim among mu sicians, that when the bass is good, the harmony is seldom had.
Bass, counter, is a second or double bass, where there are several in the same concert.
Bass, figured, is that which, while a certain chord or harmony is continued by the parts above, moves in notes of the same harmony. Thus, if the upper parts consist of C, E, G, (the harmony of C,) and while they are continued, the bass Moves from C, the fundamental note of that harmony, to E, another note of the same harmony ; that bass is called a figur ed harmony.
Bass, fundamental, is that which forms the tone or natural foundation of the in cumbent harmony ; and froth which, as a lawful source, that harmony is derived : that is, if the harmony consist of the com mon chord of C, C will be its fundamen tal bass, because from that note the har mony is deduced; and if, while that har mony is continued, the bass be changed to any other note, it ceases to be funda mental, because it is no longer the note from which that harmony results and is calculated.
Bass ground, is that which starts with some subject of its own, and continues to be repeated throughout the movement, while the upper part or parts pursue a separate air, and supply the harmony. This kind oibass is productive of a mono tonous melody, and has long since been rejected as a restraint upon the imagina tion.